3 Tools to Decompress Financial Stress

Do you worry about money? And do you spend precious energy in that worrying? I’d venture to say “yes.” Most of us are largely worried and secretive about our finances.

One of the things I’ve learned from Kabbalah, life and mentorship is that everything has a reason. IfMost of us are worried and secretive about our finances
we’re focused on something, it’s because there’s a powerful spiritual backdrop.
The biggies—food, sexuality, money—have a hold on us because at their root,
they are vital spiritual forces.

Bearing this in mind, what forces lie at the root of financial matters, and how can they free us of our fiscal worries?

Here are some thoughts I find helpful.

1. Emotions, not facts, generally drive our responses to money.

Assessments of our own personal financial situations often reveal little about the facts on the ground. Instead, they exhibit more about our inner state and our way of relating to the world. As author Paul Auster writes in Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure: “Money, of course, is never just money. It’s always something else, and it’s always something more, and it always has the last word.”

Most often, we can’t find our way out of our challenges because we don’t have accurate maps. Once you know there is a backdrop, you can tend to the underlying emotions and beliefs driving your decisions. So as a prelude to attending to your finances, examine your feelings and beliefs about money.

Which brings me to my second point.

2. Those emotions are driven by faith (or the lack of it).

Essentially, our deficiency is not money. It’s not even our emotions. It is our faith in G‑d. We worry about money because we lack sufficient faith. A brief examination of the etymological source of the word “money” attests to this.

The Roman goddess Juno was the goddess of fertility and wealth. She was the protector of funds. As such, money in ancient Rome was coined in her temple. She was referred to as Juno Moneta. According to many opinions, therein lies the root of the word “money.” In fact, in Italian, moneta is the word for “coin.” And in America, the figure of Moneta was depicted with treasure chests on the front of an 1861 Confederate States of America $50 banknote.

Now let us take a look at a Hebrew/Aramaic word that means money, mamon,
which also sounds similar (and may even be related to) our English word,
money.

The sages point out that mamon shares a root with the word moneh, which means “to count.”1 The word can also be linketo man, as in the manna the People of Israel ate during their wanderings in the desert.

Perhaps “putting bread on the table,” “having dough,” and other associations between money and food can be traced to their original Hebrew.

Linguistics aside, what does it all have to do with our emotional well-being and abundance mentality?

The words tell us that we’re caught up in counting. Counting many individual, isolated things. From the bottom up, our world looks like a place of duality with many distinct forces that govern all the details. That leaves us feeling vulnerable and needing to compensate for all the iffiness we perceive. We do that by accumulating more and more of the disparate stuff,
the things we can count. The correlation between the words for “money” and
“counting” hint to us that if we don’t get to the core Force that underlies and
unifies all the “stuff,” we will always be left counting and yearning for more.

The bottom-up perspective of duality doesn’t capture the full truth of the way things are. The truth of reality is that there is one Unifying Source from which everything else emerges. That force is G‑d. In Hebrew, the word “faith” is emunah. It is comprised of the first letter of the alphabet (alef, numerical value of “one”), plus the word man,
“manna” (read “money”). In other words, faith is defined as trusting in the One
Who Counts and Unifies Everything.

It is in this trust that we find true meaning which we can then apply to our lives. Our essential mannafrom heaven is not food per se, but faith—our faith in the One G‑d. Our trust in the One G‑d means that we are aware of G‑d in our lives. That truth is our true wealth.

3. Faith frees us up to heal.

When we allow ourselves our faith, we become free of our worries. Being supported by G‑d means that we do not have to be entirely (and arrogantly) self-reliant. Consequently, we stop depleting ourselves of our soul energy and can thereby manifest our energy in this world in the best possible way. We become free. And when we are free of worry, we have more energy to be creative and contribute to G‑d’s plan and purpose in positive ways.

This connection between faith and healing brings me to the holiday of Passover. The holiday meal is best known for the matzah that Jews eat, reminiscent of the haste in which the People of Israel left Egypt. TheWhen we allow ourselves our faith, we become free of our worries
mystics teach that the matzah of the first night of Passover is “Bread of Faith” and that of the second night is “Bread of Healing.”

In a compilation of teachings called Hayom Yom (“Day by Day”), the Lubavitcher Rebbe quotes his father-in-law: “On the first night, matza is the ‘bread of faith.’ On the second night it is the ‘bread of healing.’ When healing leads to faith (in that a person says, ‘I thank you G‑d for my recovery’) he was nevertheless sick. But when faith generates healing a person was not sick in the first place.”

In other words, when we begin with the deep inner work of faith, matters of health and sustenance become clarified. When we bring trust in the One G‑d into our lives or—as we now see on all American paper money, “In G‑d We Trust”—we realize our faith in a G‑d Who knows everything, Who counts everything. We can have confidence that G‑d counts our good work. He sees our honest and meaningful efforts in life. Our reality and inner purpose shine with meaning—a reflection of the light of G‑d within.

Shimona Tzukernik is the creator of The Method, a therapeutic application of Kabbalah for individuals and corporations seeking spiritually based transformation. Known as “The Kabbalah Coach,” she has counseled hundreds of individuals, and now offers coaching certification in The Method. She is also an internationally recognized speaker and author for the Rohr JLI. Shimona has been featured in media around the world including a documentary by National Geographic and NickMom’s “Take Me to your Mother.”

yep, indeed, going and coming, my whole life has been proof of that, bread no matter how you slice it! i could say i didn't need the roller coaster ride...but only He knows.your article had me written all over it....thanks for the preview, spectacular, enjoyed it!
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AnonymousWhite PlainsOctober 20, 2017

3 Tools to De-compress financial stress
Creating markets such as arts and crafts fairs in neighborhoods. Generally getting a permit from local municipal government is fairly easy and free or cheap. Post skills and services. Hold garage sales and 'Garage Sales for People Without Garages". Then comb The Foundation Center and PND for available grants. It takes time and energy but,this is what works.
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